[MLS SPOTLIGHT] New England coach Jay Heaps had good reason to be in a foul mood following Wednesday's game against Seattle at the Desert Diamond Cup in Tucson.

The Revs' preseason has not gone well. Their arrival in Arizona was delayed by two days because of Nemo. Five potential starters missed the game with injuries or illness. The 2-0 loss to the Sounders kept them winless in preseason. And the shutout left them with one goal -- from the penalty spot -- in three preseason games.

So it was no surprise that Heaps was upset when Chris Tierney -- one of his most dependable and versatile players -- was taken out by Sounders hardman Oswaldo Alonso.

“One of the plays where Chris got hurt is not needed in any game, never mind preseason, professional soccer or under-12,” Heaps said in the post-game report on RevolutionSoccer.net. “It’s just a bad play.”

Tierney left the field at the Kino Sports Complex on crutches after Alonso took him down as went to cross the ball.

"It was an unfortunate incident. You hate to see a guy get really hurt, and Tierney got injured pretty badly," Heaps told the Arizona Daily Star. "We reacted. You just feel for Chris because he's not a guy who goes down. When he gets hit like that, you're just upset."

New England-Seattle:


Alonso and the Revs' Clyde Simms were subbed out of the game after the incident and New England's Sainey Nyassi and Seattle's Marc Burch were both ejected in the 80th minute.

The extent of the injury to Tierney's ankle was not known, but New England cannot afford another injury.

Three players -- Ryan Guy (calf), Kelyn Rowe (knee) and Saer Sene (ACL surgery) -- are sidelined with injuries -- and two more players -- Matt Reis and Chad Barrett -- missed Wednesday's game with illness.